Meet Niki Weegens, Creative Director at Onyx Coffee Lab and founder of Specialty Creative, who brings a unique perspective to coffee branding shaped by her journey from building furniture to building brands. In this comprehensive conversation, Niki breaks down what branding really means beyond just looking pretty—it's about how your business feels to customers and how intentionally you express who you are.

Niki challenges common misconceptions about branding, emphasizing that it's not just aesthetics but the complete experience customers have with your business. She provides practical advice for solo coffee shop owners, including her surprising recommendation to start with writing 20 pages of copy before focusing on visuals, and how to leverage AI tools like ChatGPT as a 24/7 brand strategist.

Her background building out all the Onyx Coffee locations during her woodworking years gives her unique insight into how physical spaces and brand identity work together. Niki's approach emphasizes clarity over complexity, helping coffee shops find what makes them "right for the right person" rather than trying to serve everyone.

Topics covered:

• Why brand is about how something feels, not just how it looks
• The copy deficit vs. creative deficit concept for solo business owners
• Using AI tools as brand strategy partners and writing coaches
• Why "serving everyone" actually serves no one
• Building brand guides and documentation that teams can execute
• When to invest in professional branding help (hint: sooner than you think)
• The transition from woodworking to coffee brand strategy

Chapters:00:10 - What Branding Really Means Beyond Pretty Visuals04:47 - Practical Branding for First-Year Coffee Shop Owners07:17 - How to Know Your Branding is Actually Working12:09 - Telling People What You Care About Without Screaming16:26 - The Copy Deficit Problem and Writing Your Way to Clarity21:17 - Communicating Brand Vision to Your Team25:58 - When to Reach Out for Professional Branding Help30:29 - The Woodworking to Coffee Branding Journey Story

Niki Weegens is Creative Director at Onyx Coffee Lab and founder of Specialty Creative. Find her at specialtycreative.co or follow her occasional cat content on Instagram.

Meet Matthew Marco, a brand strategist with two decades of experience helping businesses build customer-first brands, who joined Coffee Futures Fund's Week 2 program to share crucial insights about truly understanding your customers. In this focused conversation, Matthew breaks down the subconscious signals every coffee shop sends from the moment a customer walks through the door.

Matthew challenges the common coffee shop mentality of "serving everyone" and explains why this approach actually serves no one. Drawing from his experience in Washington Heights, Manhattan, he illustrates how every business already sends implicit signals through furnishings, music, aroma, lighting, and the types of customers already in the space—whether you're conscious of it or not.

His practical advice centers on the 80-20 rule: knowing that 20% of your customers (your regulars) likely generate 80% of your revenue. Matthew's homework assignment is simple but powerful: start a notebook, learn your regulars' names and drink orders, and create symmetrical relationships where you know them as well as they know your business.

Topics covered:

• The five senses approach to controlling your brand's first impression
• Why "serving everyone" actually means serving no one
• How implicit signals determine who feels at home in your coffee shop
• The power of regulars in the 80-20 customer distribution model
• Practical steps to start knowing and documenting your core customers
• Creating symmetrical relationships with customers who drive your business

Chapters:00:33 - What Customers Notice When They Walk Into Your Coffee Shop02:30 - The Magic of Implicit Signals and Subconscious Brand Messaging04:31 - Why "We Serve Everyone" Holds Coffee Shops Back07:17 - Who Are You Making Feel at Home? Identifying Your True Customers08:44 - Meet Your Regulars: The Simple First Step to Customer Understanding

Matthew Marco is a brand strategist who joined Coffee Futures Fund as a Week 2 guest speaker. Subscribe to Inside the Grind for more insights from coffee industry experts.

Meet Jeremy Lyman, founder of Birch Coffee and Coffee Futures Fund's first guest speaker, who shares his insights on the most foundational question every coffee entrepreneur must answer: Why are you doing this? In this conversation, Jeremy reveals how your "why" isn't something you need to figure out on day one—it's something that evolves through real experiences and interactions with customers.

Drawing from nearly three decades in service and hospitality, Jeremy discusses how Birch Coffee's mission centers on making every person feel seen and heard in their 5-8 minute interaction. He shares practical wisdom on active listening, the importance of greeting every customer, and why you should aim to "knock it out of the park" with one person at a time until it becomes second nature.

Jeremy also provides a candid look at the challenges of scaling personal service, training employees to embody your values, and why being a coffee shop owner means taking 100% responsibility for everything that happens in your business. His story about eating bacon as a vegetarian perfectly illustrates how small lapses in attention can break customer trust forever.

Topics covered:

• Why your "why" evolves through experience rather than appearing fully formed
• The 5-8 minute window you have to create meaningful customer connections
• Practical active listening techniques and greeting strategies
• How to train employees to make customers feel seen and heard
• Why setting impossibly high standards actually works in service
• Taking complete responsibility as a business owner for your team's actions

Chapters:00:33 - What It Really Means to Know Your Why04:54 - How Birch Coffee Discovered Their Purpose Through Experience10:18 - Making One Person Feel Special: Practical Active Listening16:11 - Training Your Team to Deliver Consistent Service21:04 - Taking 100% Responsibility for Your Business

Jeremy Lyman is the author of "Love Thy Customer" and founder of Birch Coffee. This episode features our Week 1 guest speaker from the Coffee Futures Fund Summer Cohort.

Part 2 of our conversation with Héctor Carvajal dives into the realities of running Don Carvajal Café and building a team that shares your vision. Héctor opens up about the challenges of finding people willing to help you achieve your dreams, especially as a young business owner managing employees older than himself.

In this episode, Héctor discusses his unique leadership philosophy—inspired by Gary Vaynerchuk's idea that your dreams should be big enough for other people's dreams to fit inside them. He shares insights on marrying street smarts (learned from selling candy on NYC trains) with book smarts (business plans and proper margins) to create sustainable success.

Héctor's current focus on "maintaining" rather than aggressive growth offers valuable lessons for any coffee entrepreneur feeling the pressure to constantly expand. His approach to customer experience—removing barriers between barista and customer while taking coffee seriously but not too seriously—shows how authenticity and accessibility can coexist in specialty coffee.

Topics covered:

• Building a team when you're younger than most of your employees
• The Gary Vaynerchuk philosophy: making your dreams big enough for others to fit inside
• Combining street hustle with business fundamentals for sustainable growth
• Why "maintaining" can be more valuable than aggressive expansion
• Creating open, barrier-free customer experiences in coffee shops
• Taking coffee seriously while keeping it accessible to everyone

Chapters:00:33 - Building a Team That Believes in Your Vision04:49 - Leadership Style: The Balance Between Freedom and Structure05:52 - Street Smarts vs. Book Smarts in Coffee Business10:17 - The Next Phase: Maintaining Growth While Building Sustainability13:43 - Creating Authentic Customer Experiences at Don Carvajal Café18:21 - Supporting Local Coffee and Feeling Supported as an Owner

This concludes our two-part series with Héctor Carvajal. Subscribe to Inside the Grind for more insights from coffee entrepreneurs building authentic brands.

Meet Héctor Carvajal, founder of Don Carvajal Café, who spent seven years building a coffee brand and community before ever opening a physical shop. Starting as a college project in his dorm room, Héctor's journey represents something powerful: how authentic cultural storytelling and patience can create a foundation that makes opening a coffee shop feel inevitable rather than risky.

In Part 1, Héctor shares his unconventional path from a broke college kid selling coffee out of his dorm to building a brand that got people driving two hours just to experience his vision. He discusses the pivotal moment when he embraced his Dominican heritage through moka pot brewing videos, bridging the gap between intimidating specialty coffee culture and the way his grandmother made coffee every morning.

Héctor's approach challenges the traditional coffee shop timeline—instead of opening first and hoping customers come, he built community, trust, and demand over years. His story reveals why culture isn't just marketing; it's the art that makes coffee accessible and meaningful to people who might otherwise find specialty coffee too intimidating to enter.

Topics covered:

• Why Héctor waited seven years before opening his first coffee shop
• How college dorm room coffee sales taught him about building community
• The breakthrough moment with moka pot content that connected culture to specialty coffee
• Building demand and brand loyalty before having a physical location
• Why embracing Dominican heritage became his competitive advantage
• The difference between intimidating specialty coffee culture and inclusive storytelling

Chapters:00:33 - The Seven-Year Journey Before Opening Don Carvajal Café08:22 - Building a Brand Through Cultural Authenticity and Storytelling12:08 - The Moka Pot Moment: When Culture Became Content16:36 - From Immigration Story to Coffee Heritage18:23 - Life Before vs. After Opening the Coffee Shop

This is Part 1 of our conversation with Héctor Carvajal. Subscribe to Inside the Grind for more stories of authentic coffee entrepreneurship.

Meet Tiffany, co-owner of Cardoon Coffee in Seattle, who shares the deeply personal story behind her unique coffee shop that blends German and Chinese influences while creating genuine community connections. Born during the pandemic when three partners asked "why not now?", Cardoon represents something powerful: what happens when you bring your authentic self to the coffee business.

In this heartfelt conversation, Tiffany opens up about their mission to "meet you where you are"—their WiFi password and core philosophy—and how they've created a space that serves espresso martinis alongside traditional coffee, ensuring there's truly something for everyone. She discusses the emotional weight of building genuine human connections through food and drink, and why their menu items are designed as conversation starters.

Tiffany also shares practical insights on understanding your customer personas, the loneliness of small business ownership, and how having three diverse partners helps navigate the constant challenges. Her passion for creating organic opportunities for human connection in an increasingly digital world shines through every aspect of Cardoon's approach to hospitality.

Topics covered:

• How personal heritage and authentic storytelling shape menu development
• The "meet you where you are" philosophy of inclusive hospitality
• Creating conversation starters through unexpected flavor combinations
• Understanding customer personas through observation and organic conversations
• The emotional reality of small business ownership and partnership dynamics
• Extending coffee shop programs into evening experiences with full bar service

Chapters:00:33 - The Pandemic Inspiration Behind Cardoon Coffee03:18 - What Makes You Unique: Personal Heritage as Business Strategy05:37 - The "Meet You Where You Are" Customer Experience Philosophy08:14 - Learning Customer Needs Through One Year of Operation12:03 - The Emotional Connection Behind Menu and Community Building15:38 - Practical Mentorship: Understanding Customer Personas and Habits24:17 - All-Day Café and Bar: Extending Coffee Culture Into Evening

Tiffany is co-owner of Cardoon Coffee in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood, where German and Chinese influences create unexpected connections over coffee and community.

Part 3 of our conversation with Laila Ghambari tackles one of the biggest challenges coffee entrepreneurs face: managing the relentless pace of business ownership without burning out. Laila shares her practical framework for prioritizing tasks, setting realistic timelines, and having grace for yourself when you can't do everything at once.

In this final episode, Laila addresses the comparison trap that social media creates for coffee shop owners—seeing beautiful drinks from warm climates when you're serving Americanos in rainy Portland, or feeling pressure to copy every trend you see online. She emphasizes the importance of focusing on what actually works for your customers and community, not what looks good on Instagram.

We conclude with Laila and Akshat discussing the essence of Coffee Futures Fund: creating the ecosystem that coffee entrepreneurs have been asking for. As Laila puts it, "If someone would just give me a little bit of money, knowledge, and a seat at the table—here it is." This conversation perfectly captures why CFF exists and how it can transform individual businesses and the entire specialty coffee landscape.

Topics covered:

• Practical systems for managing business owner overwhelm and decision fatigue
• The "5-minute rule" and other time management strategies for entrepreneurs
• How to avoid the social media comparison trap in coffee business
• Why "done is better than perfect" applies to coffee shop operations
• The real value proposition of Coffee Futures Fund for emerging coffee entrepreneurs
• Building an ecosystem approach vs. traditional venture capital in coffee

Chapters:00:33 - Managing Business Owner Life: Systems for Sustainable Growth08:39 - Avoiding Social Media Comparison and Information Overload15:08 - Coffee Futures Fund's Value Proposition for Emerging Entrepreneurs23:03 - The Elevator Pitch: Why CFF Exists and Who It Serves

This concludes our three-part series with Laila Ghambari. Subscribe to Inside the Grind for more insights from Coffee Futures Fund mentors.

Part 2 of our conversation with Laila Ghambari addresses a critical question every coffee entrepreneur faces: when is the right time to seek guidance? Laila breaks down the key indicators—from decision fatigue to tapping out free resources—and explains how to think about the ROI of consulting, considering both time and money investments.

In this episode, Laila shifts from business strategy to community building, sharing lessons learned from her father's legacy in Seattle's Iranian-American community. She provides a practical playbook for coffee shop owners who want to build genuine community connections, starting with supporting what already exists before trying to create something new.

Whether you're struggling with when to ask for help or wondering how to authentically engage with your local community as an introvert, Laila's insights offer clear, actionable strategies that any coffee entrepreneur can implement immediately.

Topics covered:

• Recognizing when you've exhausted free resources and need expert guidance
• Calculating the true ROI of consulting: time savings vs. cost
• Why supporting existing community initiatives is more effective than starting from scratch
• Practical networking strategies for introverts in the coffee industry
• How to offer your space for community events to build relationships
• Simple conversation starters that take the pressure off networking

Chapters:00:00 The Value of Community in Coffee Business

00:51 Investing in Relationships and Mentorship

07:33 Building Community and Supporting Others

16:31 Navigating Networking and Community Engagement

This is Part 2 of our conversation with Laila Ghambari. Subscribe to Inside the Grind for more insights from Coffee Futures Fund mentors.